Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Switching Lunch & Dinner

Sometimes it's a struggle finding time to work, shop, cook, clean, and still make it to the gym and have some time to relax. Planning meals and cooking when I get home has been especially hard; usually I'm starving and tired by the time I make it home and just want dinner to be ready.

So lately I'm trying something new: swapping out lunch and dinner. Instead of the usual big salad, I've been making a pot of soup and cooked veggies on Sundays and packing them for lunch. When I get home I fix my big daily salad for dinner.

So far this new routine is working splendidly! My lunch is warm and filling, which means less temptation to eat all the free goodies in the office kitchen, and my salad doesn't need a lot of prep work when I get home, so it's ready fast.

Today I packed an old favorite, Dr. Fuhrman's Creamy Asparagus Soup, half a baked carnival squash, and a pretty pear. (Look, it still has a leaf on it!)

20 comments:

My midwife, who is Seventh-day Adventist and also once taught nutrition classes, highly recommended switching the meals around. Well she actually recommended a big breakfast and smaller meals for the rest of the day. That way your body gets the fuel it needs for the day and you won't go to bed full of heavy foods. I have often thought of adopting that plan but a. I'm not a morning person and b. with my husband at work, it is impossible to feed him a good meal at a time other than the evening. Seeing your plan makes me a little more inspired to try it.

omg! I needed to read this! I have been struggling with the same thing as well. Including needing to say no to office food...in the middle of winter I often crave something warm and comforting during the day, and like you, am exhausted when I get home from work. Perfect!

I couldn't agree with you more. I find it very difficult to find time to make meals. I usually make my stuff on Sunday and then eat the leftovers later in the week. This sounds like a great routine. I have to try the asparagus soup. Do you add anything else to it or just rely on the recipe from Dr. Fuhrman? It sounds pretty delicious as is - I am just wondering. Thanks for the post, I'm going to try this. It seems so easy to do and a great way to switch things up and make it interesting from day-to-day being a vegetarian!

I couldn't agree with you more. I find it very difficult to find time to make meals. I usually make my stuff on Sunday and then eat the leftovers later in the week. This sounds like a great routine. I have to try the asparagus soup. Do you add anything else to it or just rely on the recipe from Dr. Fuhrman? It sounds pretty delicious as is - I am just wondering. Thanks for the post, I'm going to try this. It seems so easy to do and a great way to switch things up and make it interesting from day-to-day being a vegetarian!

Great idea Jennifer! With these past few months being so cold, soup is a great, fulfilling lunch time option. Have you seen that our lunch jars are back? They are perfect for keeping your soup hot! Check them out at www.LaptopLunches.com.

I have just gotten back from traveling in Europe and my boyfriend and I found it much easier to adopt this strategy when planning our meals. I think its great mostly because it means im not eating so close to sleep time and it closed the margin against wanting to eat something quick and fattening since we were to tired to go out and find somewhere vegan and gluten free to dine. Im defintly going to do this now that Im at home and starting work again.

I was just wondering what are your ingredients for your big salad that you eat each day?

I don't really read your blog too much, but I stumbled upon your Magic Loaf Generator a few years ago and I seriously use it all the time. I figured I would come back here and pay my dues toward you for making my life awesome.

I love your soup, though I personally prefer to change the asparagus to broccoli. Just want to share with you another cream tomato soup recipe I found recently.http://www.fourgreensteps.com/community/recipes/soups-a-stews/fresh-tomato-soup-Check it out. You will like it.

Don't you just love your tiffin?I use mine for everything!! And even when I am at home. My friend told me that nearly all of the regular dishes have lead in them, so I am kind of leaning toward the tiffin for daily use. Gotta look into some green, healthy plates. Love your blog.

I love the idea of swapping lunch and dinner! How ingenious! :D Only problem for me is when I'm out and about I usually don't have a microwave... But it's much easier to eat a salad at home. These fit and fresh salad things are pretty cool, however. http://www.amazon.com/Fit-Fresh-210-FF-Shaker/dp/B000FNEVQG So that might also make taking a salad a bit easier. :) Thanks for the tips!